Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Walter Kälin

Former Professor of Constitutional and International Law at the University of Bern

Prof. emeritus Kälin was professor of constitutional and international law at the University of Bern (1985-2015). There, he also directed the Swiss Centre of Excellence in Human Rights (Schweizerisches Kompetenzzentrum für Menschenrechte; 2011-2015). His main areas of research include international human rights law with a particular focus on the law pertaining to internally displaced persons, persons displaced in the context of disasters and adverse affects of climate change, and refugees.

Prof. em. Kälin was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee (2003-2008 and 2012-2014); member of the UN Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Board (2012-2014); Representative of the UN Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (2004-2010); and Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission on the situation of human rights in Iraqi occupied Kuwait (1991/92).

Other activities include: Member Expert Group on Non-Economic Losses of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (since 2016); Envoy of the Chairmanship of the Nansen Initiative on disaster induced cross-border displacement (2012-2015) and Advisor to the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (since October 2016); Co-Rapporteur ILA Committee on Refugee Procedures (1995-2002) and Member ILA Committee on Sea Level Rise (since 2014).